The Gods Must Go
by Richard Oxman

*Author's Advice: Skip down to Paragraph Six to avoid ungodly alliteration, etc.*

This is about getting up-off of your butt-and your worn-out knees.

It may not be for you if you don't feel like you're in a horse race-with your pony's tail ablaze. Enveloped by hospital patients in the Grandstand feeding intravenously on U.S. Drip History. Full of mixed metaphors to break through to your pews.

Because (among many other reasons) the vast majority of U.S. citizens are eating food that has the nutritional value of cardboard within an environment wherein wannabe-Houyhnhnms are coming down a doomed stretch, I will TRY to write in a simple style (by Paragraph Six)-so that readers can save themselves, if not the world,-on some level. Jockey for a new position. I WILL *TRY* TO BE DIRECT IN THIS INSANE ASYLUM WHICH PRIDES ITSELF ON ITS CLARITY AND LOGIC.

Unlike Jonathan Swift, I do not believe the world can be mended-at this juncture. Certainly not if concerned citizens –core lefties– continue to create, consume and convey same ol' same ol' crap 'round the world in the name of communicating The Interesting.

The Interesting –which comprises the overwhelmingly number of -protest- pieces/-enlightening- alternative proclamations posted/published/pronounced via Dissenting Outlets– is surely slated to keep us asleep-and ensure death without a bleep from the machine we're hooked up to incessantly.

Gary Corseri and William Blum (see http://www.counterpunch.org/corseri04042006.html, if necessary) deserve better than what I dish out here, but they just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Who needs another interview with Blum *on the grapevine*, or for anyone? It's interesting? *Interesting* is boring, typical, and terminal.

Who hasn't already come across what Blum would do if he were our president? Nevertheless, his speculation that he'd be assassinated after four days of making radical changes is noteworthy. If one believes that –and one should (unless embracing the equally logical assumption that he'd be done away with prior to any election)– how can one tolerate the endless talk about such matters? The electoral process itself.

Initially, I also thought that Osama's recent BB endorsement was -marvelous.- However, now that the scorecard's in on what the public will NOT do with the exposure to Blum –not unlike the results of their previously *forced contact* with Ward Churchill– don't circumstances beg for concerned citizens to refrain from thinking that it did very much good, even in the sense of planting seeds?

Perhaps those who have a sense of our having another thousand years to see the Blum buds bloom will disagree with me. I don't care about them here. Just like I can't afford to care about Corseri or Bill right now. Right now we're comin' down the stretch with our tail on fire. *Hire me* to prove that to you. Unlike the well-known, I don't charge anything.

Or avoid unpleasant contact with me and read a little Brechin, Jensen or Monbiot. I'm just a few smelly rungs down the ladder from those three; you needn't start with me. But you MUST pee out of a new orifice. Permit new language. Speak TO the trees.

One thing Bill is not is disingenuous. That doesn't mean he can't be stupid about anything: –I’m part of a movement which has the very ambitious goal of slowing down-if not stopping-the American Empire. To do that, we need to reach the American people. And to reach them we need access to the mass media. So, for that reason, I’m very thankful.-

We are not going to reach the American people with words. Not if that's essentially all we're doing. Which is virtually all we're doing. We're –without question– NOT going to be making inroads with regard to mainstream media, all of the peripheral -advances- from Bill's highly touted internet people notwithstanding. Sorry, Bill, even Amy much increased audience is TOO SMALL POTATOES for the dish you're trying to serve up.

Consider my Jonathan Swift quote in a recent article (http://oxtogrind.org/archive/152) which urges concerned citizens to consider new paradigms, recommends something specific. Just keep in mind the gist of what's in the (second) opening quote about Buddha-so that you don't make the same mistake that people made with the Irish author and journalist's A Modest Proposal (1729, three years after Gulliver's Travels).

-You can't reason a man out of what he didn't reason himself into.- That's vintage JS.

By the way, when the actor Peter O’Toole read Swift's *proposal* in the re-opening of the Gaiety Theatre in '84 Dublin, several members of the audience split. It reminds me of the responses I've been getting from online publishers; such anecdotes confirm what's clearly a virtual verbal lost cause. PS, the disenchanted/disgruntled almost killed Peter. We could have done without him in '04 *Troy*, but, boy, what if he hadn't made the casting couch for '95's *Gulliver's Travels*?

Again, more than words are needed. And there's no time for people like Corseri and Blum to fantasize about their being represented as following in the fine steps of Swift down the line, or carrying on any particular tradition. Ecocide will make ongoing traditions impossible. Make a mockery of such pretentions.

-The Empire is on its way out. The opposition is growing all the time. The numbers of Americans will before too long reach a critical mass and explode. I don’t know exactly what form that explosion will take, but it’s going to happen The Republicans are losing the support of many leading conservatives. There must be ten leading conservatives who have come out in the past few months in no uncertain terms condemning the Bush Administration and their foreign policy. The end can’t be too far away. Hopefully, they will not take the world with them.-

Bill's blah blah –for all of its on-target moments, and genuine heartfelt compassion/passion– demonstrates absolutely no sense of urgency. His -before too long- has zero to do with what I'm talking about; that's a line of leisure(ly pace). And, furthermore, there's a very counterproductive notion inherent in his words which suggest that anti-Bush people can serve as our saviors. That what we're faced with –what we're living in the midst of– isn't rotten to the core, by its very nature. without a Chinaman's chance of catching a break from bleak consumerism and the irreparable psychological damage/sickness which infuses our society. Directs it.

I take it that Bill has chosen to ignore the very clear pattern he's delineated in his life's work. To wit, our history –apparently immune to significant reform– being grounded in darkness, creating ever-deeper aphotic depths of depravity at every ominous turn, regardless of which party is ruling in the White House.

How does the author of Killing Hope come up with the following line?: -Hopefully, they will not take the world with them.-

From whence comes the *hope*? Can he possibly be talking about *electoral hope*? He can't be that much of an idiot. He's certainly not talking about hope emerging from people taking matters into their own non-electoral hands. That I know because of personal contact with him; contact which made clear that Bill himself would never take part in anything by way of risky dissident demonstration on the streets (at this point in his life).

If Bill's not going to the barricades, not many will be taking that tack. And I can tell you that the route recommended in my Swift-influenced article must be totally ruled out. Judging from the response I-didn't receive.

-Q. That great sucking sound will not be the world going down the drain?
A. It will be Bush and Rumsfeld and Rice-and their ilk-sucking down all the way to hell!-

Interesting excerpt above. I can't help but wonder what Bill's reaction was to that photo of Robert Redford dancing with Rice recently-at some White House Evening Devoted to Lifetime Achievement in the Arts (See -Redrum, Redrum- at http://oxtogrind.org/archive/113). Caps on purpose here. Though *incorrectly* used. Just like with Redford and Blum. Let's put a cap on all that positive talk, can we? The talk which touts Rob't and BB as being aware of our environmental situation ('cause they mean well and have done loads of good turns, and continue to do so).

Hey, if you know what's flying you don't dance with CR, and you do NOT hint that there's a dint of diff between what Dems or Reps or Greens will want to/be able to do in the White House. On this I invite readers to revisit Bill's own rundown of how he'd be run down as Prez (above), and to note the weather outside their own hospital bed these days-to determine which way the environmental wind is blowing. Whether or not friends are using *those phones*, droning, owning, and so on.

-I don’t appreciate that argument that you shouldn’t preach to the choir First of all, no one is born into the choir. So, it’s okay if we repeat the same message in various media. I’m sure our numbers are increasing all the time. The polls show that I have faith that our numbers will increase to the point where we’ll reach a critical mass and then there will be fusion or fission.-

So Bill puts stock in polls, does he? In progress too, like a good Linear Thinker. Has faith in choir-preaching. What cumulative phenomenon is he counting on? The one that's based on the notion that all the public needs is more information repeated ad infinitum? That intellectual quirk flies in the face of all he's produced over the years. Unless, again, he's just talking about replacing Bush. Regardless, he's obviously ignorant about the public's track record vis-Ã -vis information on very personal (They're eating cardboard, Bill!!!) and truly macroscopic environmental issues (They're producing cardboard up the kazoo, Bill, in spite of all the PBS documentaries on forests!!! For quite some time, whilst driving to your lectures in SUVs.); don't count on chopsticks or -bagels and- AND the NYTimes bloated self self-destructing.

It's fairly clear –that's to be polite– that he, the interviewer, and all of the lefties lined up with their unending (polluted) stream of articles must be STUPID.

Why am I so cocksure about this?

Remember, Bill's not taking to the streets with the revolutionary fervor that he expects others to embrace once they're informed, once they have their Ah-Hah Moment. He's expecting a turnaround that's never come in our history to positively influence politicians who have never cared for anything but *what Bill closes with in the interview*.

Bill's final words: -Go to my website: www.killinghope.org. And buy lots of books.-

That's Blum's advice. Get more of the same, and get more of the same from *his site*. In addition, choir and non-choir members alike are to get excited about destroying more forests (counting on technology to deal with that abomination).

The man whose hopes lie in the Corseri-inspired activist *linkage* that Bill muses about near the end of his interview has not lived long enough on the street recently. The potential solidarity Gary encourages readers to dream about dissipates when push comes to shove-as per our entire historical record. Including relations between Bill's honored A.N.S.W.E.R. and-other groups, like UPJ. A no-brainer, oui?

We're long past the point where we need to read or tout another book. Or article. Whether or not it's by Bill. Long past pathetic pleas for huge group solidarity, I should think. I *would* think? Is that how our cousins say it? Whatever the technicalities/niceties involved, let's not forget where we're at: Overdue to stop citing how millions did this or that in the past. Ripe to rip everyone on the Left who participates in the latest round of self-promotion, avoiding The Obvious Confrontation That Must Take Place Yesterday.

Send Bill whatever bucks you deem possible, and support him in his final years. That he deserves significant stroking with consideration of his output is unquestionable, but has zero to do with my criticism here. He certainly doesn't deserve to have his throat cut like Rummy and others, though his present stance is contributing to our demise as much as any Bushite or righteous anarchist arguing about *isms* (as a main focus). In the main, we must move on-leaving everything from Alexander C to Magazine Z behind.

No more incense-inspired worship of scandals and those who provide the scoops in lieu of-.

Yah, Bill's a highly influential, hardworking soul, but-. Brilliant by many mundane standards notwithstanding, we must acknowledge that he's of this earth.

The longstanding, current myths of The Left are as removed from reality as the Atlas Mountains are from the Heavens that they supposedly held up, according to the Ancient Greeks. Gods, can't live with 'em, can't-?

A first healthy step for many activists, apparently, would be to stop looking at the Blums of our Alternative World as titans or gods.

Richard Oxman, info@parisgraves.com, is sorry, so sorry; he'd love for readers to give Bill (or any of the titans) a human hug if paths cross. And sorry too that he couldn't stick to sidestepping the wordplay; so much damage is done by *wordplay* today. A former college professor of writing and taxpayer-he's certainly capable of communicating/interacting along traditional, obsequious lines.